Simply stated, credit is borrowed money. Credit signifies the amount of trust a creditor has in the fact that a debtor will repay borrowed funds pursuant to an agreement. The amount of trust a creditor has directly translates into the amount of money that will be provided to the customer and which must be repaid.
To facilitate credit transactions, a credit bureau acts as a clearinghouse for credit history information. Credit grantors provide credit bureaus with factual information on how their credit customers pay their bills. Credit grantors can obtain credit reports about consumers who wish to open accounts with them.
Recently, credit bureaus have provided services to consumers allowing the consumer to monitor changes to their personal credit information. These monitoring systems can provide notices any time a change is made to the consumer's credit report to ensure that the credit information used by the credit bureau is accurate and up to date. Moreover, the information can be used by the consumer to ascertain the likelihood of obtaining credit. However, the consumer will not know if the changes are sufficient to allow them to obtain credit without actually applying for the same.
Only businesses or individuals with a permissible purpose can access a consumer's credit report. An example of a permissible purpose includes accessing a credit report in connection with a credit transaction involving the consumer. Because of these restrictions, a credit grantor cannot on its own access credit information to determine the credit worthiness of any particular consumer.
The present invention is directed to enhancements in current systems and method for managing relationships between credit grantors and consumers.